State Sen. Caleb Rowden drops out of Missouri secretary of state race
Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, the Republican state senator representing Boone County, announced he will not be running for Missouri secretary of state, or any political office, this year.
“When I announced my intention to run for Secretary of State last November, I truly believed it was the best decision for my family and I,” Rowden wrote in a post on X. “Through a number of additional conversations with my wife and those close to our family, I no longer believe that to be true.”
Rowden has served 12 years in the Missouri General Assembly, being first elected to serve in the Missouri House in 2012 and later elected to the state Senate in 2016. Due to term limits, this will be Rowden’s final year as a state senator.
On the first day that candidates could file for office, Rowden was absent from proceedings and hadn’t filed since. Additionally, he missed both the Boone County Lincoln Days and Greene County Lincoln Days, each of which held forums for candidates to discuss their qualifications for the offices they were seeking.
Rowden feels that service to the state as a politician has changed during the time that he has been in office.
“While there have always been deep political and philosophical disagreements about how to get to a desired outcome, the desired outcome and the facts used to make decisions used to be shared values. More and more, the latter no longer seems to be the case,” Rowden said. “Consensus-building was once a trait that was admired and rewarded. That no longer seems to be the case.”
During his time in the state Senate, Rowden served as Senate majority leader from 2019-2023, and most recently as Senate president pro tempore. As a member of Senate leadership, he faced factional disputes from members of the now defunct Conservative Caucus, which has been reshaped into a state chapter of the national Freedom Caucus.
In January, after facing disruptive tactics from Missouri Freedom Caucus members seeking action on initiative petition legislation, he removed four senators from their roles as committee chairs, calling them a small group of “swamp creatures.” The backlash from this came in the form of letters from local Republican committees demanding his resignation from Senate leadership.
Rowden said that leaving the political realm is the best move for his family, and that precious moments spent with his children recently helped him make this decision.
“I have been given numerous small, but meaningful, moments in the last few weeks with my kids that have reminded me of the opportunities that exist for all three of them in the years to come, and how my presence and support in their lives can enhance those opportunities,” Rowden said. “My legacy in politics is secure, and I am grateful for that. The legacy I will leave through my children is just getting started, and I am even more grateful for that.”
Rowden didn’t specifically say what his plans would be once his term in the Missouri Senate ends, but that he would continue to “serve my community and my state in new and meaningful ways after my Senate tenure is complete.”
“I love Columbia and Boone County, and I love the state of Missouri,” Rowden said. “Whether it is in public office or not, I plan on spending the rest of my life working alongside anyone with a similar objective to make Missouri the best place in the world to live, work, and raise a family.”
More: Did you miss Greene County Lincoln Day? Here's what the GOP candidates had to say
Of all the candidates running for Missouri secretary of state, Rowden had accumulated the largest campaign war chest, according to campaign finance reports from January, with more than $177,000 in his candidate committee Friends of Caleb Rowden, and more than $234,000 in his associated political action committee Missouri Forward PAC.
Remaining in the race for the Republican nomination are Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, state Sen. Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg, state Rep. Adam Schwadron of St. Charles and political newcomer Valentina Gomez Noriega, a real estate investor who gained attention last month while burning “woke” library books with a homemade flamethrower.
In terms of fundraising, Hoskins now leads the pack with a combined total of more than $268,000 from his candidate committee and associated PAC. Schwadron has more than $103,882 between both committees, Schoeller has raised a total of more than $55,000 between both committees, and Gomez Noriega had nearly $1,600 in her candidate committee. These figures were calculated based on fundraising by the end of 2023.
State Rep. Barbara Phifer entered the race for the Democratic nomination last week. According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, her candidate committee from past political races had more than $7,000, as a January report.Also competing for the Democratic nomination are Monique Williams and Gavin Bena, both of St. Louis, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Caleb Rowden exits race for Missouri secretary of state
